waterfaLLZ: "Against Flash, we were really nervous, because we knew that we could win"

We talked to Quantum Bellator Fire's in-game leader, Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev, following his team's narrow win over Flash to find out more about the team and discuss their two matches at the tournament thus far.

Quantum Bellator Fire managed to give Natus Vincere a run for their money in the first half of Inferno on day one, although they ended up losing the opener following a rough Terrorist side.

On day two, they met with one of the other underdogs, Flash, on the same map and the Russian side clinched their first victory, turning around a crucial round towards the end of the match.

waterfaLLZ admitted Quantum Bellator Fire is feeling the pressure

We quizzed the in-game leader, Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev, about the team's roles and the qualifier, which is by far the biggest tournament his team has attended:

Let's start with the preparation, with this being the biggest tournament you've ever attended, what have you done before the Major qualifier?

Before the holidays we had a 20-day bootcamp in Moscow, we have our team house, and after the holidays we went to the team house again and bootcamped for three days, and then we left to America.

Was there anything special that you focused on?

We focused on the roles in the team, we tried to fix the best roles in the team for our players, we changed some stuff before the Major and the things in praccs were going better and better.

Can you explain the roles within the team?

I am the AWP and IGL, Kvik is an entry-fragger, balblna is like a support player, BoombI4 is the lurker and jmqa is a rifler, more of a support player as well.

Tell me about your first match with Natus Vincere, you were able to compete in the first half but dropped off in the second...

We knew that we are the underdogs so we didn't have that much pressure on ourselves, but for the three guys in my team it was the first tournament on a big stage, so they were a bit nervous. We managed to show some good CT rounds on Inferno, but we lost the pistol, we were in a 3v3 situation and it was a bit shaky, and after this we lost some stupid rounds, like it was 2v2 and one guy just peeked and didn't plant the bomb. After that, Na`Vi snowballed us in the economy and we couldn't come back.

In the second match with Flash, it got very close in the end, how were you able to close it out?

I don't know, actually, we won a full eco round, I had some idea and it worked. In this game with Flash, we were really nervous, because we knew that we can win against them. We had more nerves than against Na`Vi. You could see that sometimes there were very bad aim duels, it's really like f*cking serious, I don't know, I was nervous as f*ck as well.

How have you been able to deal with that pressure, then?

This tournament, first of all, is for getting experience for us, really, because no one is expecting anything from us. We got stickers by luck, they changed the system and we got this, so we are happy with that already, and our project Quantum Bellator is small, so we gained here to gain some experience against top teams.

Are you hoping to surprise some?

We were doing well in praccs against some teams here, so if we aren't nervous, maybe we can show some good results and upset some teams.

As a "junior" I won European Championship and unofficial World Championship in handball (the rest of team do now all play senior elite div. and a couple on the national team). And just for the subject's sake I've played various semi-pro level cs such as EPS.
As for what goes on in the mind of an athlete, I think I know what I'm talking about.